General Question

Is it true members of the EU Parliament collect an annual salary of over 200,000 € for little work?

There is a video on Youtube circulating that members of the European Union Parliament collect huge salaries with other monies that is possibly near 300,000 € annually while doing little work except checking in. Is this true?

4 Answers

Taken directly from Wikipedia:

Until 2009, MEPs were paid (by their own Member State) exactly the same salary as a member of the lower House of their own national parliament. As a result, there was a wide range of salaries in the European Parliament. In 2002, Italian MEPs earned €130,000, while Spanish MEPs earned less than a quarter of that at €32,000.

However, in July 2005 the Council agreed to a single statute for all MEPs, following a proposal by the Parliament. Thus, since the 2009 elections, all MEPs receive a basic yearly salary of 38.5% of a European Court judge’s salary – being around €84,000. This represents a pay-cut for MEPs from some member states (e.g. Italy, Germany, and Austria), a rise for others (particularly the low-paid Eastern European Members) and status quo for those from the United Kingdom (depending on the euro-pound exchange rate). The much-criticised expenses arrangements were also partially reformed.

They are mostly also in all kinds of committees that research things the parliament has to vote on. If you’re on Twitter, I can advice you to follow an MEP for a while to see what they’re up to. (Also, an MP of your country so you can compare.)

No, it is not true, especially not these times (bad economical situation)
They earn amounts similar to those, erned by casual politics, maybe a bit more, but for sure not more than 200 000 euro.
Every person who works as politician has to public his financial statement, so it is possible to check it.